Help:Educators FAQ

Getting involved using Physiopedia in your class is very easy and painfree.  It is free to do, can be accessed by anyone, and the wiki writing is made simple through a convenient editing toolbar. 

Question:  What do I need to do to get my class started using Physiopedia?

    Once you have decided to use Physiopedia for your course, simply sign up for a username, have your students sign up for user names, login, and begin creating content.  We encourage you to contact us about ideas or questions you have for using Physiopedia.

Question:  I'm not sure what type of project I should assign my students, how can I decide?

    There are probably more ways to use this wiki, or any wiki for that matter, than we can come up with on our own.  However, having students contribute to content articles on Physiopedia is an easy way to get your feet wet.  This type of project lends itself well to any clinical management course.  Each student, or group of students can be responsible for updating a condition, or an intervention in an evidence-based manner. Be sure to read the User Tutorials to learn about creating new pages.  Encourage your students to provide references on each page and use images with permissions and/or the appropriate citation.

Question:  How can I track what my students are creating?

    First, we expect that you have given your students guidance as to what specific content or types of content they should develop.  Each Physiopedia page has a History tab where you can view how various users have contributed.  Additionally, you can flag pages your students are working on by using the Watch feature on each page.  You can provide feedback to your students either privately, or in the Discussion tab on each page. 

You can also track individual user contributions by visiting their profile page and clicking on the 'user contributions' tab at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Question:  So, the entire world can see what my students write?  Is that dangerous?

    It is normal to feel midly aprehensive about setting any student off to do work in a public setting.  This is an important part of professional development for students.  As an instructor, you can see and edit what your students write, and nothing that is created on Physiopedia is anonymous.  By contributing in a world-wide community, your students will being interacting with other professionals on a scope that was unimaginable several years ago!  Explain to your students about wikis and the public nature of this site, and then sit back and watch them create fine content, develop important web skills, and interact with the world community of physio- and physical therapists.

Question: What 'shape' would my students work have to be loaded to Physiopedia?

    The students can add text based contributions themselves to Physiopedia with the simple editing tool.  If this method does not suit you, we would be happy to add your students work to the site if you email them directly to us.

Question: Can the students cite such contributions in a CV?

    Of course they can, we would love them to do so! Any contributions that they make to the site can be tracked and viewed on their personal 'user contributions' page.

Question: Is there a quality assurance loop ...or do we let the users do that via feedback?

    As a wiki anything that the students add can be edited by any registered user, this is what provides the quality assurance (and development) for the whole Physiopedia project.  Our editors also monitor all the changes that are made in the site and you could also easily monitor the students contributions if you wish. 

Question: Is full access to the site free and are there any other 'conditions' that I should know about?

    Yes full access to the site is free.  Make sure that you read the terms of service, general disclaimer, copyrghts and privacy policy before committing your students to work in Physiopedia to ensure that you are happy with how the site works.

Question: Is there a way of getting promotion for a program through tagging the source of a contribution?

    If you are keen to go ahead with this student contribution we would make you one of our partner institutions.  Our partner organisations will permanently be featured on our page of acknowledgements and will also be entitled to free course/program advertising space on Physiopedia.  If however there is any other way you would like to promote your program we are open to suggestions so please let us know your ideas.